JMM takes potshots at Centre for denying GST compensation

Ranchi: A day after chief minister Hemant Soren shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the release of the pending GST compensation, ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Saturday used the opportunity for a political barb at the Centre.
JMM central general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said the Centre made “tall claims” and asked what went wrong within 116 days of announcing a Rs 20 lakh crore national package that it could not even release Jharkhand’s GST share of Rs 2,500.
He said, “It was on May 12 during the peak of lockdown crisis when the PM addressed the nation and announced a relief package worth Rs 20 lakh crore. The package was so big that he handed over the responsibility to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to share details of the package in a staggered manner for ease of understanding. For the next one week, Sitharaman addressed the media every evening to share the details of the mammoth package.”
Highlighting the figures shared by the minister, Bhattacharya argued that by the end of Sitharaman’s fifth-day briefing, the volume of package reached Rs 21 lakh crore. “The central ministers were apparently taking it lightly, which is why they never bothered to sum up the announcements and the tall claims of the relief package went beyond what they had announced in the beginning while on the ground, the reality is quite different,” he said.
Bhattacharya also claimed that not a single MSME in Jharkhand has received loans from the central package. “The state did not even get one ventilator as help in the fight against Covid-19 from the package. So, we have stopped asking questions about the relief package and have not sought support from PM CARES’ fund but what about our legitimate share of GST compensation?” he said.
On the official letter written to the PM by Soren, Bhattacharya said the state government wanted to follow the protocol so that the process of releasing the compensation is expedited and that the state is not pushed to a financial crisis. “We are demanding a meagre amount of Rs 2,500 from the huge central relief package announced by the PM,” he said.
Raising questions on the use of the voluminous package, he said there was no prosperity reflected anywhere in the country.
“More than 14 crore people have been rendered jobless, GDP has plunged to negative 24% and the Centre has no money to release the GST compensation to the states. Where did all the money go? This must be answered by the Centre to the 3.25 crore people of Jharkhand who toil hard to fill the coffers of the Centre,” Bhattacharya added.